A stream of tears slowly trickled down her face.
The revenge for her elder sister had finally been exacted.
Yet, the one who carried it out wasn't her. Still, Kocho Shinobu knew very well that she alone could never have severed Doma's head.
"Shinobu-chan..."
Kanroji Mitsuri gently placed a hand on Kocho Shinobu's shoulder, offering comfort.
Kocho Shinobu realized her lapse and quickly wiped away her tears with her sleeve, as if trying to change the subject.
"Qingshui, you're covered in blood. You must be badly injured!"
"My injuries are actually..."
"And Mitsuri, you were hurt just now too. I'll take you both to get bandaged up!"
Without another word, Kocho Shinobu took Qingshui's hand with one and Kanroji Mitsuri's with the other, leading them into a nearby house.
...
Meanwhile, a Kasugai Crow circled once in the sky before flying towards the village entrance.
More than ten minutes later, when the swordsmiths received the news and returned to Swordsmith Village, they found that the battle had indeed ended and began tidying things up.
...
...
In the Naruto World, Sand Village, Puppet Force, Sixth Division Headquarters.
Once, on the podium of the classroom where the Puppet Force taught newcomers Forbidden Jutsu, Qingshui was eloquently lecturing to over twenty Puppet Masters.
Nearly half of these Puppet Masters were new recruits this year, and among the remaining members, many were seasoned veterans and core members of the Puppet Force.
Besides Qingshui, the other Jonin-level Puppet Masters were Ishido and Jianye.
This was to cultivate a talent team for the future construction of the canal's reservoirs and sluices. Many of the technologies required in Qingshui's proposal were achieved through Puppetry, so it was naturally necessary to teach some of the concepts and knowledge to these Puppet Masters in advance and conduct research and development.
The reason Ishido and Jianye were present was that this team needed Jonin besides Qingshui to oversee and assist. However, among the Jonin, Qingshui was still relatively junior, so the entire Fourth Squad, which Qingshui previously belonged to in the Sixth Division, joined as the main backbone.
Ishido was a veteran Elite Jonin, with relatively high status and prestige among Jonin. His capabilities and methods were also sufficient to help Qingshui manage the team.
Jianye had also only recently become a Jonin. Logically, becoming a Jonin would qualify him to serve as a vice-captain in a division of the Puppet Force, but he hadn't yet had the chance to be transferred.
This was because there were other Jonin waiting in line, making it difficult for a newly promoted young Jonin like him to get a turn.
However, if he could accumulate enough merit, it might just happen.
"You are all elites among Puppet Masters. Regarding the design of the sluice gate's sliding door, you should understand it with just a few glances. What I want to emphasize is the puppet equipment next to it. Its purpose here is for water flow regulation testing..."
"Then there are the monitoring puppets, used for real-time measurement of water level and water pressure data..."
"Finally, regarding all the puppet structures above, a set of automated puppet trap defense facilities usable in underwater and surface environments is needed. This is to prevent deliberate destruction by enemy village ninjas, and also to allow our village's ninjas to safely enter them to repair and replace damaged or aging equipment."
"This part should be what you're best at. I need you all to design at least three proposals based on the relevant information already collected by the village within one month and submit them to the leadership group, to be decided by Lord Kazekage and the village's high-ranking officials..."
"Any other questions? If not, the preliminary training ends here."
After a long speech, the class finally concluded.
Qingshui stepped down from the podium, looking at the Puppet Masters who were organizing their notes, and walked off the stage, drinking tea from his thermos.
"Qingshui."
Sasori suddenly spoke, calling Qingshui over and handing him a form.
"I've tested all the materials you mentioned previously that are needed for your concepts."
Qingshui's eyes lit up. He took the form and read it carefully.
Last year, he had been thinking about how to implement modern industry through Puppetry.
Qingshui had been diligently localizing much of his knowledge and informed some of the Puppet Masters close to him, hoping they could help him.
However, it was not an easy task to localize a system from another world into this one.
Creating a complete system required countless geniuses and countless years of struggle. While what Qingshui was doing wasn't as difficult, it was certainly not something an ordinary person could achieve.
Chiyo and Ebizo, as top Puppet Masters in the Ninja World, certainly possessed this ability. But as high-ranking officials of Sand Village, they would still be busy after the war, so they definitely wouldn't have much time to spare.
But Sasori was different.
He was a true genius in Puppetry, a genius among geniuses, and still young. He quickly absorbed and assimilated new knowledge. Because of his wealthy family background, he didn't lack money like other ninjas and didn't need to perform many missions to cover training and other expenses.
Therefore, hunkering down at home to research Puppetry became Sasori's most common activity.
When he came into contact with countless new knowledge from another world through Qingshui, Sasori went completely insane for a period, dedicating almost all his energy to it.
So Qingshui told Sasori the theoretical knowledge he had already localized for the Ninja World, hoping he could help him.
After all, Sasori's talent in Puppetry was the highest among all the Puppet Masters Qingshui knew.
Coincidentally, Sasori thought the same way and believed Qingshui's talent in Puppetry was even greater than his own.
To date, all the Puppetry Sasori had learned was built upon the foundations of his predecessors. Even with occasional innovations, it still hadn't departed from that system.
And Qingshui?
Past experiences had led Sasori to believe that Qingshui's talent in Puppetry was not much worse than his own, but because he was born two years later, he was repeatedly defeated by Qingshui in competitions.
But now, Sasori believed Qingshui was building an entirely new system from scratch, by himself.
If successful, Qingshui's future status among Puppet Masters would be no less than that of the patriarch, Monzaemon, and might even surpass him!
"I've tested all four thousand six hundred and seventy-one materials registered in the village that are suitable for puppet manufacturing multiple times. I ultimately filtered out three types of highly transparent crystals, four types of Chakra photosensitive materials, twenty-one types of Chakra thermosensitive materials, thirty-three types of humidity-sensitive materials, nineteen types of Chakra guiding materials, and thirty-six types of high-frequency oscillating metals..."
"These are all qualified materials that meet your requirements. I also created Diode and Chakra Capacitor by combining Sealing Jutsu, as you described, but my Sealing Jutsu is still far from perfect, so these items are only single-use."
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